The Costa FLW Series is headed to Santee Cooper March 10-12 for a tournament presented by Frabill when as many as 300 pros and co-anglers will take to the water for the second stop of 2016 in the Southeastern Division.
“There are a variety of ways to catch fish this time of year on Santee Cooper, and that’s what makes it such a fun fishery,” said Quaker State pro Scott Canterbury, who has two previous top-20 finishes at Santee Cooper in FLW Series competition. “The guy that can find something off the wall all on his own is the guy that usually ends up winning.”
The last time the Costa FLW Series visited Santee Cooper in 2014, local guide Lindwood Thornill of Pineville, South Carolina, fished prespawn bass in a rock bed in the upper part of the canal that connects lakes Marion and Moultrie all alone en route to his first career win, by a 12-pound, 4-ounce margin of victory. Canterbury believes that a similar pattern will play out in this event.
“If someone can find those big prespawn fish and have them all to themselves, they can win the tournament,” Canterbury said. “Local anglers tend to have a little bit of an advantage before the spawn, as they know where the fish are staging and what brush piles they like to get into. Once the fish move shallow, though, the advantage is over. The next two weeks are supposed to be pretty warm, so I think it’ll have those fish shallow and moving.
“I’m going to be throwing a Dirty Jigs Tackle jig and flipping a NetBait Paca Craw,” Canterbury continued. “I know that big spinnerbaits – ¾- to 1-ounce – are real popular with some of the local guys. Rat-L-Traps are always a player there prespawn, and if you’re cranking around trees you want to make sure that your lure has some buoyancy so it’s not constantly getting hung up. I’ll be throwing Bagley Balsa B crankbaits, the B2 and the B3.”
Canterbury estimated that the winning angler would likely weigh a three-day cumulative total of 65 to 70 pounds.
Anglers will take off from the John C. Land III landing, located at 4404 Greenall Road in Summerton, at 7 a.m. EST each day. Weigh-in will be held on Thursday and Friday at the landing beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at Walmart, located at 2010 Paxville Highway in Manning, beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public. The event is being hosted by the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce.
Pros will fish for a top award of $40,000 plus a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. Co-anglers will cast for a top award consisting of a Ranger Z175 with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $5,000 if Ranger Cup guidelines are met.
The Costa FLW Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments with competitors vying for valuable points that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the Costa FLW Series Championship. The 2016 Costa FLW Series Championship is being held Nov. 3-5 on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri.
About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2016 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 235 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico and South Korea. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros.
By: Joe Opager, Director of Public Relations
